Digest

Crime journal

By Times Staff Writer
Published September 27, 2007

TAMPA

Students plead no contest in explosion plot

Two Freedom High School students accused of plotting to blow up the school pleaded no contest Wednesday to conspiracy charges. A third student is expected to follow suit today. Charged as juveniles, the three students were offered plea deals by the Hillsborough State Attorney's Office that included 50 hours of community service and a psychological evaluation. If they complete the plan, their records will be clean. If they don't, Circuit Judge Michelle Sisco could impose a harsher punishment. John Doan, 17, Mark Stapleton, 16, and a 15-year-old were arrested on charges of threatening to discharge a destructive device on school property and disrupting a school function. Prosecutors reduced the charges to one count each of conspiracy to make a threat. The Times is not identifying the 15-year-old because of his age.

Being shot wasn't part of his plan

Carlton K. Gay told police he was expecting "female company" at his motel room when he responded to a knock at the door. Moments later, two gunshots pierced his body. Police are now looking for two people in connection with the early morning shooting. The incident started just before 4 a.m., when Gay, 29, opened the door to his Jayhawk Motel room on Nebraska Avenue to find a heavyset woman dressed in a matching orange shirt and pants set. As soon as the motel door swung open, police said, the woman ran to the passenger side of a nearby parked car, a man got out on the driver's side of the car and demanded money from Gay. The two started fighting and Gay was shot in the chest and stomach. He was taken to Tampa General Hospital.

PALM RIVER

Wife is shot dead; man shoots himself

A woman was killed after Hillsborough deputies say her husband shot her in their Palm River home before turning the gun on himself. The man was in critical condition at Tampa General Hospital late Wednesday, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said. She did not release the couple's names. The shooting happened at 7017 Glen Cove Drive at 4 p.m. Two children, 5 and 8, ran from the house to a neighbor for help. They are in protective custody.

LAND O'LAKES

1,000 gallons of diesel fuel stolen

Pasco sheriff's deputies accused a Wesley Chapel man Tuesday of stealing more than 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel from a construction site. Deputies said surveillance cameras captured Ariel Gonzalez-Aguilar siphoning fuel into a large gas tank hidden under a green topper in the bed of his pickup truck the night of Sept. 9. The construction site was on 20 Mile Level Road in Lutz. Gonzalez-Aguilar was being held at the Land O'Lakes Jail on Wednesday on charges of trespassing and grand theft. He bail was set at $40,000.

BROOKSVILLE

One arrest may solve 20 burglaries

A Brooksville man is suspected in more than 20 burglaries throughout Hernando County. Brooksville police officers arrested Daniel Seth Weinstein, 31. City police said they suspect Weinstein in about 16 break-ins, and Hernando County deputies have charged him with five burglaries.

[Last modified September 27, 2007, 00:20:14]